Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Assam (Twitter/INC)Assembly Elections 2021 Live Updates: Addressing a rally in West Bengal’s Malda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday hit out at the TMC government for poor law and order situation in the state. “Bengal, which had once led nation, now facing lawless situation, said Adityanath, adding “Jai Shri Ram’ slogan not allowed in Bengal but people won’t allow this to continue. He also said that the Mamata government has failed to stop cow smuggling, and love jihad.
Meanwhile, during her day two of campaigning in Assam, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Tuesday interacted with tea tribes in Biswanath. On Monday, she pitched for the Congress and its grand alliance in Assam by criticising the BJP for non-fulfilment of its promises, not doing enough on women’s issues, and urging people to vote only after knowing the truth about their political leaders.
Launching a state-wide protest by the Congress against unemployment in Assam, Priyanka said a party which promised 2.5 million jobs in the state was not able to provide even 80,000 opportunities. “It is important that you recognise leaders and politicians who come and stand before you and make promises during elections. If you don’t recognise their truth, you won’t be able to change your future,” she said.
BJP’s national minority wing has appointed Uttarakhand leader Shadab Shams as in-charge for West Bengal assembly polls to work among minority voters. Shams is currently vice-chairman of Prime Minister’s Fifteen Point Programme Implementation Committee in Uttarakhand, with a rank of state minister.
BJP minority wing national president Jamal Siddiqui has also appointed two other leaders from Madhya Pradesh and Maharasthra as co-incharge for West Bengal with Shams.
Shams said there are around 33 per cent Muslim voters in West Bengal and such large population cannot be left ignored. He said he has been asked to work at booth level to attract minority voters to the BJP’s nationalist ideology. Shams added he will engage more minority leader from Uttarakhand with the same task in the poll-bound state. Lalmani Verma
Trinamool Congress MLA and former Asansol mayor Jitendra Tiwari joined the BJP on Tuesday in the presence of West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh. He was inducted into the party at a public meeting in Hooghly’s Baidyabati.
Congress constitutes a Screening Committee for upcoming elections in Kerala; HK Patil appointed Chairman of the committee pic.twitter.com/dER2e0UtR7
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Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Tuesday asserted that her party, if voted to power in Assam, will bring a new law to 'nullify' the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state.
Gandhi, during a public meeting in Tezpur, launched the 'Five Guarantees' campaign, and said her party, if given a chance to form government in the northeastern state, will dole out Rs 2,000 every month to homemakers across the state, and provide free electricity up to 200 units to all households. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, who is in poll-bound
Assam on a two-day visit, also claimed that her party will hike daily wages of tea garden workers to Rs 365 from the existing Rs 167, and provide at least 25,000 government jobs to youth. 'People of Assam were cheated by a party (BJP) five years ago that promised them 25 lakh jobs but gave them CAA instead. Our party is not making empty promises but undertaking five guarantees,' the Congress leader, who sported a traditional 'gamocha' around her neck with the letters CAA crossed out on it, said. (PTI)
Tezpur: Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF) chief Hagrama Mohilary on Tuesday asserted that the Grand Alliance led by 'old friend' Congress will perform the last rites of the BJP-led government in Assam by winning the upcoming assembly elections.
Mohilary, whose BPF was earlier a part of the BJP-led coalition government in the state, claimed that he was 'misled' by senior state minister and NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma to join the saffron party's alliance.
'It is a foregone conclusion that the Congress-led Grand Alliance will form the next government in the state and we will perform the BJP's last rites on May 2 (the day of the counting of votes),' Mohilary said in the presence of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi at a rally here. (PTI)
At a mega rally of the Congress party in Tezpur, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi launched the '5 Guarantee' campaign for the 2021 Assam assembly elections.
The party is undertaking five 'Guarantees' for the election. These are: (1) a law that nullifies the CAA; (2) 5 lakh government jobs; (3) raising tea workers' wages to Rs 365; (4) free electricity up to 200 units per household; and (5) Rs 2,000 monthly income support to all housewives.
'This election is an election of trust. The people of Assam were cheated by a party five years ago that promised them 25 lakh jobs but gave them CAA instead. The Congress party is not making empty promises but undertaking 5 guarantees,' Priyanka Gandhi said.
'Love Jihad' incidents happening in Bengal: UP CM Yogi Adityanath at Malda rally - PTI
With the countdown having begun for the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, both the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK alliances have hit roadblocks. The AIADMK is in a fix as allies BJP and RSS want to facilitate re-entry into the party of ousted general secretary V K Sasikala, the closest aide of the late J Jalayalithaa. On the other side, the DMK is refusing to hand out more seats to the Congress.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday signed poll pacts for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly elections with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK), allotting them three and two seats, respectively.
The representatives of IUML, led by its leader Kadar Mohideen, and MMK, led by M H Jawahirullah, met DMK president M K Stalin at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in Chennai.
Speaking to reporters, Mohideen said the IUML had initially sought five seats. “Since the period of Kalaignar (former CM M Karunanidhi), IUML is always the first party to sign a poll pact with the DMK, and party leader M K Stalin has followed this tradition. We asked for five seats, but they (DMK) explained to us that they need to field more of their party members and also accommodate other new allies, and hence we settled for three seats. We will contest on our ladder symbol,” he said.
Priyanka Gandhi interacts with Assam tea workers on day-2 of her visit
Desiya Murpoku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), once a sought-after party in Tamil Nadu, now seems to be trying all tricks in the book to get a decent deal for itself ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
According to sources, the DMDK high command is refusing to settle for less than 20 seats, but the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is ready to offer them a maximum of 11 in the upcoming elections. Read more
Former Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Monday threatened to sue Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his "cut money" charge, rejecting it as baseless and asking him to prove it or apologise to people.
A day after Shah accused him of giving 'cut money' to the Gandhi family from Central funds meant for the Union Territory, the senior Congress leader said he will file a criminal defamation case against the minister, adding he was ready to face any probe in the matter.
"Amit Shah's statement that the Narendra Modi government gave Rs 15,000 crore to Puducherry and that I gave it to the Gandhi family (by cut money) is absolutely baseless and far from truth," he told a press meet. "I challenge Amit Shah. Can you prove your allegation? I am ready for any probe. You are Home Minister. You have IT, ED, IB. Why have you not taken action..who sent the Rs 15,000 crore when. When did the Prime Minister send it?" he asked. PTI
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money laundering aspect of the Saradha chit fund scam case, has summoned TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh for questioning. Ghosh has been asked to appear before the official of the central agency on Tuesday 11 am.
“I will definitely go. I have always honoured the investigating agency. In October 2013, they had summoned me and I had submitted all the required documents. If they want it again, I will do it," Ghosh told The Indian Express.
He also said that in 2015 the agency had filed a chargesheet and he wasn't named in it.
Ghosh was the CEO of Saradha Media, an arm of the Saradha Group which busted in 2013 for its illegal operations. He was arrested by West Bengal Police in 2013 for his alleged involvement in the chit fund scam.
The former TMC Rajya Sabha MP spent 34 months in jail, and in the custody of West Bengal Police and CBI. He got bail on October 5, 2016. ENS
Congress leader questions party's West Bengal alliance
Indicating a division in the Congress ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, senior leader Anand Sharma has questioned the party's alliance with the Indian Secular Front in the state.
Taking to Twitter, Sharma said the Congress cannot be selective in fighting communalists but must do so in all its manifestations, irrespective of religion and colour.
He further said that the Congress’ alliance with parties like ISF and other such forces militates against the core ideology of the party and Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism, and added: 'These issues need to be approved by the CWC.'
The ISF is a party floated by Abbas Siddiqui, an influential cleric of the prominent religious shrine Furfura Sharif.
Bengali actor Srabanti Chatterjee on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kolkata, adding to a list of celebrities joining the party ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections starting March 27. The actor joined the party in the presence of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and state party president Dilip Ghosh.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday claimed that BJP leaders talk about implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in various parts of the country, but lack the courage to mention it in Assam.
Assam witnessed violent protests against the CAA in 2019 and five persons lost their lives.
The grand alliance of the Congress and six other parties will form the government in Assam after the election as the people are fed up with the false promises made by the BJP, she said. BJP leaders move around the country talking about implementing the CAA but are silent about it when they come to Assam, Gandhi added. (PTI)
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday and appealed to the people from Bihar domiciled here to vote for the ruling TMC. Emerging from a meeting with Banerjee at the state secretariat, Yadav said that the first priority of his party was to stop the BJP's progress in West Bengal.
He, however, avoided giving a straightforward answer to questions by journalists about whether the RJD will contest the elections in alliance with the TMC, saying the upcoming polls will be a fight for saving "ideals and values". "Our party's stand is to provide full support to Mamataji," he said, appealing to the people from Bihar domiciled in Bengal to stand with Banerjee's party.
Banerjee, on her part, said she and jailed RJD supremo Lalu prasad share "mutual respect". "When we are fighting, it is brother Tejashwi who is also fighting, we are together," Banerjee said. PTI
Tamil Nadu should show the way to India in keeping away forces that are inimical to language and culture and those projecting "one culture, one nation and one history" concept, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday.
The Lok Sabha MP participated in multiple engagements in this district as part of his three-day tour of Tamil Nadu, ahead of the April 6 Assembly polls in the state which his party is facing in alliance with the M K Stalin-led DMK. (PTI)
The Congress on Monday set up a screening committee for the upcoming Assam assembly elections and appointed former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan as its chairman.
Chavan is a part of the 'Group of 23' Congress leaders who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi demanding an organisational overhaul and internal elections for every post. The committee will screen candidates for the assembly polls and make recommendations to the Central Election Committee. Chaired by Gandhi, the Central Election Committee will make the final decision on party candidates.
Other members of the committee are ex-officio. They include AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh, PCC president Ripun Bora and CLP leader Debabrata Saikia.
Elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 2. (PTI)
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has appointed 28 observers for poll-bound West Bengal, a senior leader said on Monday.
Congress leaders from states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have been appointed as observers for the eight-phase elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly.
Assembly elections will be held in the state in eight phases between March 27 and April 29. (PTI)